Fortunately Golden 'Dick' Richards made it into our league. What a pleasure it was to have him.
One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from former Chicago quarterback Bob Avellini, who by the way was, himself, horrible at his position. Said Avellini, “Golden Richards is the worst wide receiver I have ever seen.”

Shlabotnik-
Awesome you are playing our ROMs! That makes me excited to hear they are getting use. I, along with Matt Bird (faulkner), make the rosters for our league (TLL). We split the positions half and half. I believe starting in the 1980 season I started doing the entire offense, while Matt does the defense (before that we each were responsible for positions on both sides of the ball). We do put a lot of work and research into making the players. So glad you are digging it. Let me know if you'd like any other season ROMs. We just started the 1982 season.
I haven't seen that glitch you speak of. It was MAN v CPU, and not CPU v CPU, right?
cheapcatch

This is one of the best games of all time. Every year I do a run through of it. This summer I played through it (both quests) three times, with the goal of not dying once. On the third attempt I achieved this goal. It's a fun game. It would be cool to go back and play it with no knowledge of where the items, dungeons, etc. are.

I swear I've witnessed DH previously making hip hop/rap references, so when I saw the ODB graphic I initially thought "ODB, holdin' it down" was a reference to Old Dirty Bastard. Great work with the graphic, DH....

wow, I had never heard Wolfley before. The dude is hilarious. Love his monotone presentation combined with oft outrageous descriptions. Let's just say football is not hard to understand. Ron, would you care to comment? He also has a bit of John Madden in him.

My mom's side has a ridiculously huge family, and they are all about the family connections. Somehow my aunt recently found out that Anthony Barr (Minnesota's 2014 First Round Draft Pick; 9th overall pick) is the son of their uncle's daughter. Apparently the daughter moved out to California years ago, and Barr was raised by his grandmother there. My parents and other family members live near Buffalo, so when Minnesota played Buffalo at Orchard Park this season they went to the game, and met Barr after the game. Doesn't get any more random than that.

One thing we've found out, through at least TSBIII, is that the player condition doesn't always match abilities/play speed/etc on the field. The most obvious example is a RB in EXC, who appears like he would be super fast, but when you use him he is slow as molasses. It's possible the game at times mismatches players to their attributes just like it does when stat swapping occurs. This might not be helpful, since I am just speaking from the perspective of TSBIII, but it seemed potentially relevant. ....actually probably not, since your question is about health, not condition....

It is online. We hook up through ZSNES. We hold a draft each season, and depending on the number of coaches for the season coaches have anywhere from 3-6 teams, but in every season, all 28 teams are MAN controlled. It takes approx 6-7 months to complete a season, so it is quite the endeavor. We are currently doing 2 actual weeks per 1 tecmo week, Getting people together for what you are talking about is the toughest aspect of it. Most people who play TSBIII do not travel to the NES tournaments (and as far as I know there aren't even 30 people who play TSBIII in the entire 'online' and extended Tecmo community that I know of). On the other side of the coin, the vast majority of NES tecmo people don't care much for TSBIII. It's just how it is. Ray (TecSpectre) held a TSBIII tournament a time or two, but eventually cxl'd it due to turnout. Depending on where you are at in the country, you might be able to make one of Ray's "get togethers" he puts on in Philly, where a handful of people meet up and play TSBIII for the weekend. He also holds an in-person league twice a season, but the format is different than what you speak of. I think their league is currently full, but you could always ask him about it, or about if he is planning a side get together. One just needs to get his/her TSBIII anyway s/he can, since the TSBIII population is sparse. Good luck with your idea- it would be cool if you could make it happen.

yeah, I agree that the best guess is that the season hadn't started yet when the rosters were being compiled, and thus TSB3 doesn't actually feature the final opening season game day rosters across the board. Some improper jersey numbers are most likely a product of that.

From a MAN v MAN standpoint, TSBIII has the fun factor because it is simple in its play, yet deceptively complex, due to the immense variation. This includes anything from the well-timed spin move to the combinations of where the defensive players run to after a defensive call is made to the heat-seeking fullback that won't leave your MAN defender alone. Also, there is great variety across opponents, so you cannot play everyone the same. It seems like the game would eventually dry up, but as simple as the game is from a 'play' standpoint, new combinations and events arising keep it fresh. Coaches learn your tendencies and you learn theirs so one must always evolve. Tecmo also has a flair for the dramatics, negative and positive.

To answer the thread's question, our current league (which has had 5-7 people involved), albeit with 28 teams, is 1/4 of the way through completing this task for the fifth time. I was also part of an older league that accomplished the feat two times, that time with the 30 teams from the OG ROM.

Hey Eric- I love the amibition here. It would, though, be difficult to pull this off, since the population of TSBIII fanatics is sparse. Seven of us are already wrapped up in a TSBIII league similar to what you are describing in this post. Each season a handful of coaches MAN every team. We are a retro-league. We started in 1976 and are currently just beginning 1980. It's nice to see some TSBIII love. Here's the website is you want to check it out: http://scottzolak.com/thelegacy/

DH, good job bro. What you are involved in is historic, and takes a ton of dedication and hardwork. James Baker: pump the brakes and get over yourself. Your backtracking and highlighting of yourself isn't doing you any favors. Just sit back, stop patting yourself on the back for doing nothing, and let DH and company work their magic.